JANEWAY [OC]: Personal log,
Stardate 48546.2. Our journey home is several weeks old now, and I have
begun to notice in my crew and in myself, a subtle change as the
reality of our situation settles in. Here in the Delta Quadrant, we are
virtually the entire family of man. We are more than a crew and I must
find a way to be more than a captain to these people, but it's not
clear to me exactly how to begin.

[Engineering]

(Janeway comes out of the turbolift and walks past a crewman gazing out
of an observation window in the corridor, then into Engineering.)
JANEWAY [OC]: At the Academy, we are taught that a captain is expected
to maintain a certain distance. Until now, I've always been comfortable
with that distance.
(Torres spots her from the upper catwalk.)
TORRES: Captain, I didn't realise there was an inspection scheduled.
JANEWAY: Not an inspection, Lieutenant. A stroll.
TORRES: We should have the warp drive up and running by oh nine hundred
hours. Recalibrating the reactant injectors is the only thing we have
left to do.
JANEWAY: Carry on.
JANEWAY [OC]: Maybe this is just the way it works. Maybe the distance
is necessary. Maybe more than ever now, they need me to be larger than
life.

[Mess
Hall]

JANEWAY
[OC]: I only wish I felt larger than life. Computer, delete last
sentence.
(Janeway enters. Paris and Kim are at a table, picking at their meal
trays.)
JANEWAY: Gentlemen. As you were. So, has Neelix concocted anything
interesting this morning?
KIM: There's an ancient Chinese curse, Captain. May you live in
interesting times. Mealtime is always interesting now that Neelix is in
the kitchen.
JANEWAY: We shouldn't judge him too harshly. He is helping us conserve
replicator energy.
PARIS: And I'm sure the gastrointestinal problems will go away as soon
as our systems get used to his, er, gourmet touch.
JANEWAY: Well, I'll see you at duty call.
(Janeway leaves.)
KIM: We should've asked her to join us.
PARIS: Ensigns don't invite captains to sit down.
KIM: Why not?
PARIS: Because they don't.
KIM: Well, what's wrong with showing a little courtesy?
PARIS: Captains don't want courtesy, they want respect. That's why they
don't get chummy with the lower ranks.
KIM: Well, who else is she supposed to get chummy with out here? There
aren't many other captains and admirals for her to talk to.
PARIS: If she wants to sit with us, she'll ask us to join her. That's
the way it's done.
KIM: I think you're working from an old rule book, Paris.
(Janeway tries to pour herself a cup of coffee at the counter, but the
jug is empty.)
JANEWAY: Neelix?

[Kitchen]

(He
doesn't appear to be around, so she enters and explores the various
bubbling pots and pans.)
NEELIX: Captain! May I say, you look beautiful this morning. Is that a
new colour lipstick?
JANEWAY: No. No, it's the same colour I always wear.
NEELIX: Well, perhaps it's just the way the glow of the food heater
lamps hit you but you look wonderful. Not to suggest you don't always
look wonderful.
JANEWAY: Neelix. Do we have any coffee left?
NEELIX: No, but we have something even better.
JANEWAY: I don't want something even better. I want coffee.
NEELIX: It's made from a proteinaceous seed I discovered on an
expedition
JANEWAY: Never mind. I'll use one of my replicator rations for coffee.
NEELIX: That would not be appropriate, Captain.
JANEWAY: I beg your pardon?
NEELIX: You need to set an example for the crew.
JANEWAY: Well, thank you for reminding me.
NEELIX: You're welcome. After all, if you want the crew to begin to
accept natural food alternatives instead of futher depleting our energy
reserves, you need to encourage them by your own choices, don't you?
JANEWAY: Fine. Give me your even better than coffee substitute.
NEELIX: And how about some Takar loggerhead eggs with that this morning?
JANEWAY: Just coffee.
NEELIX: It's a tiny bit richer blend than you're used to, but you'll
learn to love it.
(Neelix pours the thick gloop into her cup.)
CHAKOTAY [OC]: Bridge to Janeway.
JANEWAY: On my way. Janeway out. Tomorrow maybe.
(Janeway leaves her cup, so Neelix drinks it.)

[Bridge]

JANEWAY: Yes, Commander?
CHAKOTAY: There was no need for you to come to the bridge, Captain.
JANEWAY: Yes, there was.
CHAKOTAY: I just wanted to alert you to a nebula we've picked up on
long range sensors.
JANEWAY: Put it on screen. Magnify.
TUVOK: There are unusually high levels of omicron particles within this
nebula, Captain.
JANEWAY: Are you thinking we could collect these omicron particles to
provide an additional antimatter reserve, Lieutenant?
TUVOK: Precisely.
JANEWAY: Senior bridge officers, report for duty. Commander, set a new
course. There's coffee in that nebula.
(Paris and Kim enter.)
JANEWAY: Exploring this nebula should raise some spirits around here,
don't you think, Commander?
CHAKOTAY: No way to go but up.
JANEWAY: You're closer to the crew than I am. How bad is it?
CHAKOTAY: There's a nuanka, a period of mourning, that everyone's going
through. It's a natural reaction.
JANEWAY: I'm worried about them. I wish we had a counsellor on board,
but the nature of our mission didn't require one.
CHAKOTAY: We talk to animals. It's a Native American tradition.
JANEWAY: Animals?
CHAKOTAY: Our own counsellors. We're taught that an animal guide
accompanies us through life. Basically, it's what Carl Jung thought he
invented when he came up with his active imagination technique in 1932,
but we've been doing pretty much the same thing for centuries.
JANEWAY: Is there a different animal guide for everyone?
CHAKOTAY: Actually, yes.
JANEWAY: Let me guess. Yours is a bear.
CHAKOTAY: Why do you say that?
JANEWAY: You strike me as the bear type.
CHAKOTAY: Thank you. The bear is a very powerful animal. It has great
pokattah. But he's not my animal guide. The creature that guides us
doesn't define who we are. It merely chooses to be with us.
JANEWAY: Okay. If not a bear, then what?
CHAKOTAY: I can't tell you that. It would offend my animal guide if I
spoke its name.
JANEWAY: But he guides you well?
CHAKOTAY: Actually, it's a female. But yes, she usually guides me very
well.
JANEWAY: Can one just choose their own animal guide?
CHAKOTAY: It's not quite that simple.
PARIS: Captain. We're approaching the perimeter of the nebula.
JANEWAY: Slow to one third impulse.
CHAKOTAY: If you're interested, I'll be glad to teach you how to
contact your animal guide.
JANEWAY: You've got a date. Analysis, Mister Kim.
KIM: Seven AU's in diameter. Sensors are picking up intermittent gamma
and thermal emissions. Nothing our shields can't handle.
JANEWAY: Mister Paris, any problems for navigation?
PARIS: I'm showing mostly hydrogen, helium and hydroxyl radicals. Some
local dust nodules. I don't see them giving us any trouble.
JANEWAY: Mister Tuvok, can you find us a rich deposit of omicron
particles in there?
TUVOK: A significant concentration appears to exist approximately sixty
four million kilometres inside the perimeter.
JANEWAY: Set coordinates.
TUVOK: Aye, Captain.
JANEWAY: Engines at one quarter impulse. Engage.
(Voyager heads into the pinky purple swirly thing.)
KIM: I've never seen anything like it.
(Tuvok uses his comm. badge.)
TUVOK: Tuvok to Kim. Mister Kim, that is a comment we'd prefer not to
hear from a senior officer on the Bridge. It makes the junior officers
nervous.
KIM: Yes, sir.
PARIS: Density has increased to forty two percent.
JANEWAY: Cause?
PARIS: Not sure. We seem to be drawing some interstellar dust toward us.
JANEWAY: Engineering, could the magnetic field from our impulse engines
be attracting this dust?

[Engineering]

TORRES:
It's a good possibility, Captain. I'm showing the dust with a return
force ratio of four to one. Recommend we shut down impulse and go to
thrusters.
JANEWAY [OC]: Acknowledged. Engage thrusters.

JANEWAY: How far are we from the particles, Lieutenant?
TUVOK: Just over seven thousand kilometres.
JANEWAY: It's conceivable this energy barrier is related to those
particles. Mister Kim, if you can get a transporter beam through the
barrier
KIM: Can't do it, Captain. The thoron emissions of the barrier would
interfere with the transporter signal.
JANEWAY: Miss Torres, do we have enough power to take the ship through
the barrier?

[Engineering]

TORRES:
The barrier appears to be only fifty metres deep. A four second burst
at maximum thrusters ought to do it.

[Bridge]

JANEWAY: All right. Maximum shields. Engage full thrusters for four
seconds and then drop to one quarter.
PARIS: Acknowledged. Engaging thrusters.
(They push through the barrier.)
JANEWAY: What do you make of it, Mister Tuvok?
TUVOK: I am unable to offer identification, Captain.
(Kim uses his comm. badge.)
KIM: Kim to Tuvok. In other words, you've never seen anything like it.
Oh, I promise not to tell the junior officers.
PARIS: Captain, the breach we just make when we penetrated the field?
It just closed behind us.

[Mess
Hall]

NEELIX:
Kes! Now look what she's gotten us into!
KES: Do all nebulas look like that?
NEELIX: I wouldn't know. I'm smart enough to go around nebulas when I
encounter them.
KES: These people are natural born explorers, Neelix.
NEELIX: These people are natural born idiots, if you ask me. They don't
appreciate what they have here. This ship is the match of any vessel
within a hundred light years, and what do they do with it? Well, let's
see if we can't find some space anomaly today that might rip it apart!
KES: I don't think the Captain is an idiot. She cares a great deal
about her crew.
NEELIX: You don't care a great deal about your crew and introduce them
to the spectre of death at every opportunity. And I speak as a member
of that crew now. I'm not sure I would've wanted you to come along had
I known that this is what
KES: I think it's wonderful.
NEELIX: Wonderful?
KES: If I were Captain, I'd open every crack in the universe and peek
inside, just like Captain Janeway does.
NEELIX: I don't deny the romantic quality of this sort of casting
about. I wouldn't exactly call it wonderful.
(Kes kisses him, long and slow.)
NEELIX: Although, it's getting more wonderful by the minute.
KES: I've never kissed anyone inside a nebula before.
(Thump! Thump!)
NEELIX: What did I tell you?

[Bridge]

JANEWAY: Red alert.
CHAKOTAY: Whatever they are, they're passing right through our shields.
JANEWAY: Try reversing the shield polarity. Mister Tuvok?
TUVOK: They appear to be made up of a non-reactive material that our
sensors do not recognise, Captain.
JANEWAY: Clarify. Are we under attack?
TUVOK: Uncertain. There is no indication of directed fire.
TORRES [OC]: Torres to Bridge.
JANEWAY: Go ahead.

[Engineering]

TORRES:
These things are sticking to the hull. And I'm showing a drain on our
energy reserves.

[Bridge]

JANEWAY: A drain? Why would we be losing energy?
TORRES [OC]: I'm not sure, Captain. They seem to be drawing it right
through the shield grid along the hull.
KIM: We've lost five percent of our energy reserves. Recommend we shut
down all non-essential systems.
JANEWAY: Do it.
CHAKOTAY: Reversing shield polarity hasn't had any effect.
KIM: Energy reserves are down eight percent.
JANEWAY: This is not what I had in mind. Mister Paris, take us back
through the energy barrier and out of here.
PARIS: Reversing course.
JANEWAY: Full thrusters.
KIM: Thrusters firing.
(Thump!)
PARIS: We're not penetrating the energy barrier this time.
TUVOK: Sensors show a build-up of magnesite dust along the outer rim of
the barrier.
JANEWAY: Engineering, I need more power.

[Engineering]

TORRES:
We can't go back to impulse, Captain. That's how our problem started.
Our best chance is to burn the aft thrusters beyond their recommended
limits.

[Bridge]

JANEWAY: Proceed.
TORRES [OC]: Acknowledged. Accelerating deuterium to rear thrusters.
CHAKOTAY: We have a complement of thirty eight photon torpedoes at our
disposal, Captain.
JANEWAY: And no way to replace them after they're gone.

[Engineering]

TORRES:
Aft thrusters at one hundred five percent. One hundred fifteen percent.

[Bridge]

PARIS:
Barrier still holding. We need something else.
JANEWAY: Give me a two second blast from the forward phaser bank.
TUVOK: Firing phasers. The barrier is undamaged, Captain.
CHAKOTAY: Ready a photon.
JANEWAY: Mister Paris, assuming we can breach the energy barrier, it's
likely to close as fast as the first time.
PARIS: I'll be riding the tail of our torpedo, Captain.
TUVOK: Torpedo is loaded.
JANEWAY: Align coordinates along ship's heading.
TUVOK: Coordinates set.
JANEWAY: Fire.
(Whoosh. A hole opens up ahead of them. The ship shakes.)
TUVOK: Fifty thousand kilometres to the perimeter.
PARIS: I'm having trouble navigating through the energy currents. It's
as thick as a Toarian ice storm out there.
TUVOK: Thirty five kilometres to perimeter.
KIM: Energy reserves are still falling.
TUVOK: Fifteen thousand kilometres. We've cleared the central mass.
JANEWAY: Stand down red alert. Take us to two thousand kilometres off
the perimeter and hold position. Get a sample of that matter off the
hull for Lieutenant Torres to analyse. I'd like to know what it was
that humbled every defence system on this ship. How much of our energy
reserves did we lose, Ensign?
KIM: Eleven percent, Captain.
JANEWAY: I'm just going to have to give up coffee. That's all there is
to it.

[Kim's
quarters]

(Harry
is in bed when someone enter and pulls off his eye mask.)
PARIS: Dark enough for you?
KIM: What?
PARIS: Get up, Harry. Something you've got to see.
KIM: See? How'd you get in here?
PARIS: You'd be surprised the things you learn in prison.

[Corridor]

KIM:
MacAllister. James Mooney MacAllister. The guy never slept. He'd be
studying his algorithms until dawn and the only way I could get any
sleep was to wear a mask.
PARIS: You could've changed roommates.
KIM: Are you kidding? MacAllister got me through fourth year quantum
chemistry.
PARIS: Ah.
KIM: Besides, I got used to wearing it. Something about it that reminds
me of being in the womb.
PARIS: Harry, in order to be reminded of something, you have to first
KIM: I remember being in my mother's womb.
PARIS: Right.
KIM: I do. So what is it you have to show me?
PARIS: Nothing that's going to compare to that memory of your mother's
womb. Computer, activate holodeck programme Paris three.

[Sandrine's]

(A
ship's horn sounds as they enter the holodeck, and a bell tolls. Nearby
an accordion plays and a laughing alien walks out of a bar. Paris and
Kim enter to the popular acclaim of a group at a pool table.)
MAN: Hey, it's Tom!
GAUNT GARY: Hey, Tom, how you doing?
PARIS: What do you think, Harry?
KIM: What is it, a French bistro?
PARIS: This is where I spent most of my second semester at the Academy.
I chose the Starfleet base outside of Marseilles for my physical
training. I always had a thing about the French.
SANDRINE: And the French always had a thing about you, Monsieur Thomas.
And with a name like Paris and a face like that, how could anyone
resist?
PARIS: Sandrine, this is my friend Harry Kim.
SANDRINE: Oh, enchanté.
PARIS: Sandrine owns the place. It's been in her family over six
hundred years.
(A brunette speaks.)
RICKY: Tommy? It's about time. I've been waiting for you.
PARIS: This is Ricky. I include her in all my holoprograms.
RICKY: Hi.
KIM: Hi.
(RIcky gives Paris a passionate kiss.)
RICKY: Your friend the gigolo, wouldn't leave me alone.
GIGOLO: It's what I do, Tom. Nothing personal.
PARIS: French father, Daliwakan mother.
SANDRINE: She just sits there and waits for you, huh? Like a little
puppy dog?
PARIS: I wouldn't have it any other way.
SANDRINE: Oh, really? I thought you liked your women with a little bite?
RICKY: Everyone knows about your bite, Sandrine. It's when you start
sucking blood they get scared.
SANDRINE: Monsieur, can I get you something to drink?
KIM: Just a cup of tea.
PARIS: Harry, this is France. Er, break open a bottle of that '46 Saint
Emilion you save behind the bar for me.
KIM: I don't like to drink this late at night. I get an acid heartburn.
PARIS: Harry, it's holographic wine. It doesn't give you acid. Try to
get in the mood, huh?
KIM: Sorry.
PARIS: I learned a great deal that semester at the Academy, most of it
right here.
SANDRINE: Oui, and most of it from me.
PARIS: I found this place just after my pocket was picked walking by
the harbour.
KIM: Somebody picked your pocket? On Earth?
PARIS: Oh, they just do it for tourists. They give it back. Most of the
time.
GAUNT GARY: Nine ball in the corner pocket.
PARIS: You see that pool table, Harry? The table at Sandrine's at
Marseilles has attracted the world's greatest hustlers throughout the
centuries. I thought it might be fun to programme in some of the great
players to shoot with.
GAUNT GARY: Eight ball in the cross side.
PARIS: Gaunt Gary, Ames Pool Hall, New York City, 1953. They say that
he hustled the great Willie Mosconi himself.
KIM: Mosconi? Was he some famous billiard player?
GAUNT GARY: The game is pool, kid. Pool. I don't suppose you'd care to
wager a fin on a game or two?
PARIS: Oh, he's not ready for you yet, Gary. Let me teach him a few
tricks first.
GAUNT GARY: Watch out for him, kid. He can swallow your wallet without
ever losing his smile.
KIM: I'll keep it in mind. What's a fin?
PARIS: I'm not sure. Some old kind of Scandinavian currency. Come on.
I'll rack them up, you pick out a cue. Harry, this is my idea of home.
My little piece of Earth out here in the Delta Quadrant.
KIM: You shrug it off, or you like to make the rest of us think you're
shrugging it off, but you miss it too, don't you?
PARIS: What?
KIM: Home.
(Paris breaks.)
PARIS: Your shot, Harry.

[Doctor's
office]

(Torres
has put a sample into a centrifuge in Engineering and found the results
interesting.)
TORRES: Computer, activate Emergency Medical Holographic Programme.
EMH: Please state the nature of the medical emergency.
TORRES: Why do you always have to say that?
EMH: I can only speculate about my programmer's motives. Perhaps he
thought I might be summoned for important reasons.
TORRES: Under the circumstances, don't you think you really ought to
change your programme?
EMH: Now there's an interesting concept. A hologram that programs
himself. What would I do with that ability? Create a family? Raise an
army?
TORRES: I know a little about holographic programming. I could probably
reprogram you.
EMH: That makes me feel particularly confident.
TORRES: Has anyone ever told you, you have a lousy attitude?
EMH: If you don't like the doctor's attitude, there's a man sitting in
a console in the Jupiter Station Holoprogramming Centre you can write
to. His name is Zimmerman. He looks a lot like me, actually. Now, not
that I don't enjoy the repartee, but was there a reason you stopped in?
TORRES: I need a second opinion on this.
EMH: Who gave you the first opinion?
TORRES: I gave it to myself. It's a sample of residue we picked up in a
nebula.
EMH: A nebula? What were we doing in a nebula? No, wait, don't tell me.
We were investigating. That's all we do around here. Why pretend we're
going home at all? All we're going to do is investigate every cubic
millimetre of this quadrant, aren't we?
TORRES: The molecules are isolinear. No polycyclic structures, but
EMH: But this is what brought you to me, isn't it? The nucleogenic
peptide bonds.
TORRES: Is it some kind of phosopholipid fibre?
EMH: And you were doing so well. No, I suspect it's something far more
interesting than that.

[Ready
Room]

(Chakotay enters, carrying a skin.)
JANEWAY: Come in.
CHAKOTAY: Repair crews have degaussed the hull, Captain.
JANEWAY: Good. Let's plan an oh seven hundred departure. What's this?
CHAKOTAY: My medicine bundle. I've never showed it to anyone before.
After what you said this morning, I thought it was important to let you
see.
JANEWAY: Will it help me find my animal guide?
CHAKOTAY: Eventually you'll have to assemble your own medicine bundle,
but this will allow me to assist you in your quest for a guide.
JANEWAY: Now? Now.
(Chakotay goes up the step to the informal area by the window, puts his
bundle on the low table and sits on the floor. It takes a moment for
Janeway to take the hint and join him.)
CHAKOTAY: A blackbird's wing. A stone from the river. An akoonah.
JANEWAY: Akoonah?
CHAKOTAY: My ancestors used psychoactive herbs to assist their vision
quests. Now they're no longer necessary. Our scientists have found more
modern ways to facilitate the search for animal guides. Place your hand
on it and concentrate on the stone. A-koo-chee-moy-a. We are far from
the sacred places of our grandfathers. We are far from the bones of our
people. But perhaps there is one powerful being who will embrace this
woman and give her the answers she seeks. Allow your eyes to close.
Breath to fuel the light in your belly, and let it expand until the
light is everywhere. Prepare yourself to leave this room and this ship,
and return to a place where you were the most content and peaceful you
have ever been. You can see all around you and hear the sounds of this
place.

{Beach]

(A
seabird calls.)
JANEWAY: I know this place. It's
CHAKOTAY [OC]: You must not discuss with me what you see, or you will
offend your animal guide. As you continue to look around, you will
become aware of other life that shares this place with you. It will be
the first animal you see. That is the one you will speak to. Do you see
an animal?
(There is a lizard on a sandy log.)
JANEWAY: Yes.
CHAKOTAY [OC]: Speak to it.
JANEWAY: What do I say?
CHAKOTAY [OC]: You know what you want to ask.

[Ready
room]

(The
doorbell brings her back with a jolt.)
JANEWAY: I'm sorry. I should've asked the computer for no
interruptions. Come in.
(Chakotay wraps up his bundle as Torres enters.)
JANEWAY: The Commander was introducing me to my animal guide.
TORRES: I hope that you have better luck with yours than I had with
mine.
CHAKOTAY: B'Elanna's the only one I know who tried to kill her animal
guide.
TORRES: I'm sorry to interrupt, but the Doctor and I have come up with
a rather surprising analysis of the matter left on the hull. It's
organic.
JANEWAY: Microscopic life forms from the nebula.
TORRES: That's not what I mean. The samples are clearly organic
elements of a much larger life form. It appears, Captain, that this
nebula is not a nebula at all.

[Bridge]

(Torres
and Janeway work at a science station.)
EMH [on viewscreen]: I'm curious, Captain. Exactly what are you looking
for?
JANEWAY: I need to know if we did serious harm to this life form.
EMH [on viewscreen]: Let's see. You ran your ship through it, fired
phasers at it and blew a hole in it with a photon torpedo. I'd say it's
a pretty good chance that you did some fairly significant
JANEWAY: Computer, mute audio. Isolate that concentration of omicron
particles we were tying to get to.
TORRES: That would be right here.
JANEWAY: Mister Tuvok?
TUVOK: I'm afraid the concentration of particles is far lower than I
originally observed. Furthermore, it appears that many of the particles
have now moved outside the energy barrier.
JANEWAY: Is it possible they're leaking out through the breach we made?
TUVOK: That would be a logical conclusion.
JANEWAY: It's also a logical conclusion that all of the phenomena we've
encountered were actually this life form's natural defence systems.
CHAKOTAY: The way the barrier was protecting the omicron particles
almost suggests we were entering a vital organ.
JANEWAY: So it seems very clear that we've severely hurt an innocent
life form. How do we repair the harm we've done?
PARIS: Er, Captain?
(The EMH is waving his arms.)
JANEWAY: Computer, resume audio.
EMH [on viewscreen]: How kind of you. You may be interested to know
that the analysis of the organic sample suggested this life form has
the capacity to regenerate. The process may simply need a helping hand.
JANEWAY: Any ideas how we could stimulate regeneration?
EMH [on viewscreen]: Lieutenant Torres has the answer.
TORRES: I do?
EMH [on viewscreen]: You were the one who first observed that this life
form has a nucleogenic structure.
TORRES: If the life form has a nucleogenic structure, nucleonic
radiation ought to assist its healing process. A nucleonic beam along
the edges of the breach should theoretically promote regeneration.
EMH [on viewscreen]: Bravo.
JANEWAY: Commander, take us to yellow alert and advise the crew that
we're going to re-enter the life form. Mister Kim, review all systems
in light of our first experience and see if you can provide new
safeguards. Tuvok, your job is to find some modification of the shields
that will hold off this life form's natural defence systems. We begin
at thirteen hundred hours. Dismissed.

[Mess
Hall]

(Neelix
delivers a meal tray to a table.)
NEELIX: The bantan is a little on the spicy side. Kes grows them
herself in the hydroponics garden. Don't eat any of the little pink
things and you'll be fine.
CHAKOTAY [OC]: All personnel report to stations. Yellow alert.
CREWWOMAN: Sorry.
CREWMAN: Excuse me.
NEELIX: Now what? Neelix to Chakotay.

[Bridge]

CHAKOTAY: We're very busy up here, Neelix. What do you need?
NEELIX [OC]: This yellow alert business.

[Mess
Hall]

NEELIX:
I was just starting to serve
CHAKOTAY [OC]: Sorry.

[Bridge]

CHAKOTAY: We found out that the nebula is actually a life form and
we've got to go back in to repair some damage we did to it. Chakotay
out.

JANEWAY: Come in.
NEELIX: Captain, I understand that this nebula we've discovered is some
kind of monster?
JANEWAY: Not a monster, Neelix, but it is a life form.
NEELIX: Excuse me if I sound crazy, because someone may have been
playing a joke on me, but you aren't planning to take us back into the
belly of this beast, are you?
JANEWAY: No joke.
NEELIX: Why?
JANEWAY: Because we hurt it, and we have to help it recover.
NEELIX: I did not come on board this ship to be a veterinarian, Captain.
JANEWAY: And I thought you were a man of unlimited talents.
NEELIX: I just reached my limit. So if you don't mind, Kes and I will
wait on board my little vessel for you to return.
JANEWAY: All our crews are busy preparing for this mission. I'm not
pulling them off their duties to prepare your ship for launch. And I'm
not going drop you off on the side of the road every time we hit a
bump. When we finished, if you want to leave that's your business, but
for the moment, find yourself a seat with a good view, because just
like Jonah and the whale, you're going in.
NEELIX: Is that final?
JANEWAY: Dismissed. That's a Starfleet expression for get out.

JANEWAY: Mister Paris, bring us into position.
PARIS: Coming about forty degrees.
(Thump!)
JANEWAY: Report!
KIM: We're being hit by some kind of multi-polar charges. They're not
like anything we saw the first time.
TUVOK: Shields at eighty seven percent.
JANEWAY: Will they hold?
TUVOK: The polarity of each charge is rotating so quickly, the shields
can not compensate.

Engineering]

TORRES:
We've lost the rear driver coil assembly.

[Bridge]

PARIS:
Inertial dampers are offline. I'm losing control. Hold on!
(Janeway is knocked to the floor and a crewman falls from the
Engineering catwalk as Voyager is dragged along by threads of energy.)
JANEWAY: Engineering, initiate emergency shutdown of all thrusters.
TORRES [OC]: Captain

[Engineering]

TORRES:
The only way we can shut down all thrusters is to vent their deuterium
into space. We can't afford to lose all that fuel.
JANEWAY [OC]: We have no choice. Do it.
TORRES: Acknowledged. Cutting thrusters.

[Bridge]

PARIS:
Inertial dampers are still offline.
JANEWAY: Reset IDF baseline at three zero zero and reinitialise.
PARIS: Field processors coming back on-line. Inertial damping restored.
JANEWAY: All stop. Damage report.
KIM: Electroplasma leaks reported on deck fourteen. Repair crews are
being dispatched. Otherwise, we seem to be in one piece.
CHAKOTAY: I believe the optical data network is down, Ensign.
KIM: Yes, sir. I'll get right on it.
TUVOK: Fourteen injuries reported, Captain. None serious.
JANEWAY: Have you any idea where we are, Mister Paris?
PARIS: Approximately seventy thousand kilometres from our former
position. Deeper inside the creature than before.
JANEWAY: Let's hope it has a slow digestive process.
PARIS: Yes, ma'am.
JANEWAY: We need to get back to the wound without causing a response
from its defence systems. Suggestions?
CHAKOTAY: It seems to be leaving us alone now that we've cut off all
propulsion systems. Maybe that's what cues it to respond. If I'm right,
we might be able to get back without engaging any engines.
PARIS: No engines?
CHAKOTAY: We've been reading these swirling energy currents since we
first got here. When we thought it was a nebula, we weren't looking for
any pattern. We thought they were just random eddies. But now I'm
wondering if these currents might be some kind of circulatory system.
JANEWAY: Mister Kim, are you showing omicron particles in these
currents?
KIM: Affirmative, Captain.
JANEWAY: If the currents are distributing omicron energy throughout the
life form, the circulatory system might pass right by that wound.
PARIS: We could get in one of those currents and surf back.
JANEWAY: Use the reaction control thrusters in drift mode only, Mister
Paris.
PARIS: Aye, Captain. We're on our way. Speed, all of two hundred KPH.
(Neelix enters with a tray.)
NEELIX: Time for refreshment. Ailis paté, Felada onion crisps, stuffed
Cardaway leaves. Yum.
JANEWAY: I appreciate the thought, Neelix, but this is hardly the time.
NEELIX: As the morale officer on this ship, I insist that a break in
the workload is both healthy and necessary. Go on, Mister Vulcan. It
might even help you loosen up. Or not.
TUVOK: May I ask when you became morale officer?
NEELIX: Oh, just a few minutes ago when I sensed crew morale might be
especially low. Mine certainly was. We were in a free fall at the time.
KES: Cooking always helps Neelix to unwind.
NEELIX: Yes, and after we stabilised, I certainly needed to unwind. So,
it seemed to me, I had a choice to either come up here and say I told
you so.
PARIS: No.
NEELIX: Or to try to do something constructive to help out in my own
humble manner. Try the stuffed Cardaway leaves. They're irresistible.
(Janeway takes one.)
NEELIX: Now, as your new morale officer, I thought it might be fun for
us all to sing a few songs together.
JANEWAY: Don't push it, Neelix.
PARIS: Captain?
JANEWAY: Well done, Mister Paris. Take us gently out of the current.
Stay in RCS drift mode.
PARIS: Aye, Captain.
JANEWAY: Miss Torres, prepare your nucleonic beam.
TORRES: We're ready

[Engineering]

TORRES:
Down here, Captain.
JANEWAY [OC]: Let's give the wound

[Bridge]

JANEWAY: Two doses to start. Five bursts at a two second interval. Now.
Analysis.

[Engineering]

TORRES:
Scanners are showing the regeneration rate up only point zero four
percent.

[Bridge]

TORRES
[OC]: I don't know what we can hope to accomplish if this is the best
we can do.

[Engineering]

TORRES:
The breach may simply be too large to seal.
EMH [OC]: This is the Doctor speaking. Please activate your monitor to
the Emergency Medical Holographic Channel. I believe I may have a
suggestion that will help. [on monitor]: Since no one had the courtesy
to turn me off after my last consultation, I've had the opportunity to
observe your progress, or lack of same.

[Bridge]

EMH [on
viewscreen]: I believe a slight alteration of your treatment plan is
necessary. As inspiration, I've drawn on an ancient medical technique
known as a suture.
JANEWAY: Suture?
EMH [on viewscreen]: Before the advent of laser technologies

[Engineering]

EMH [on
monitor]: Surgical fibre was used to stitch together a wound to allow
it to heal naturally.
TORRES: How does that help us?
EMH [on monitor]: Your ship's energy systems are compatible with this
life form's omicron particles, are they not?
TORRES: That's right.

[Bridge]

EMH [on
viewscreen]: Then it is very likely that this vessel could serve the
life form's needs in much the same manner as a suture. By allowing the
ship to serve as an energy conduit across the wound, the life form
should be able to regenerate itself more rapidly.
PARIS: And how are we supposed to get the ship into the wound without
getting the hell beat out of us again?
EMH: That's your problem, not mine. Doctor out.
PARIS: That's sort of like asking a hurt dog not to bite you while you
tend to its wounds.
JANEWAY: You like dogs, Mister Paris?
PARIS: Yes, ma'am. I always had a dog.
JANEWAY: I like dogs, too. When I had to clean out a cut on my dog's
leg, I needed to create a little diversion first to take her mind off
it. Mister Kim? Prepare a class four microprobe.
KIM: Aye, Captain.
JANEWAY: Lieutenant, if I gave you a short burst from our thrusters,
would it be enough for you to manoeuvre into the breach in ten seconds?
PARIS: I'd feel better if I had twenty.
JANEWAY: Once we launch that probe as a diversion, you might have ten,
maybe even less than that.
PARIS: Ten sounds good.
JANEWAY: Mister Kim, status?
KIM: Microprobe is loaded and ready.
JANEWAY: Set coordinates for launch at one sixty mark seven zero. Cut
power after five hundred metres. I don't want to hurt this life form
again.
KIM: Acknowledged.
JANEWAY: Engineering, I'll need a one second burst from our aft

[Engineering]

JANEWAY
[OC]: Thrusters on my order.
TORRES: Standing by.

[Bridge]

JANEWAY: Launch microprobe. Thrusters.

[Engineering]

TORRES:
Firing.

[Bridge]

KIM:
Reading multi-polar charges, high frequency.
TUVOK: Shields at seventy five percent and holding.
JANEWAY: Maintain position. Engineering, direct two nucleonic beams
fore and aft, parallel to the central axis of the ship.

JANEWAY: Now, Mister Paris.
PARIS: Forty thousand kilometres to the perimeter. Thirty thousand.
CHAKOTAY: The life form's regeneration rate is up forty percent,
Captain. Looks like it's well on the way to closing that wound.
PARIS: We've cleared the central mass.

Captain's Log, supplemental. We set out to augment our energy reserves
and wound up depleting them by over twenty percent. As a result, we've
set a new course for a planet fourteen light years away that Neelix
says might have compatible energy sources to offer us. It is out of our
way, but circumstances offer few alternatives. So much for raising
spirits.

[Turbolift]

KIM:
Turning in for the night, Captain?
JANEWAY: Actually, I'm going to talk to an animal and then turn in.
Something Commander Chakotay taught me. It's supposed to be quite
therapeutic. You might want to ask him about it.
KIM: I will.
(Kim gets out of the turbolift then turns.)
KIM: Captain?
JANEWAY: What is it, Ensign?
KIM: Well, I don't mean to be out of place, but if you'd care to join
us, you'd be welcome.
JANEWAY: Join you where?

[Sandrine's]

(Chakotay and Paris are playing pool.)
RICKY: Come on, Tommy. Let's get out of here.
PARIS: Easy, honey. I'm setting the Indian up for the big hustle.
RICKY: But he's beating you.
PARIS: Yeah, that's exactly what he's supposed to think, too.
(Janeway and Kim enter.)
JANEWAY: As you were. Well, this is remarkable. Mister Kim tells me
this is your doing, Mister Paris.
PARIS: Er, yeah. It's just a little diversion, Captain.
GIGOLO: One always knows when a woman of good breeding enters the room.
Ma cherie, may I request your favourite song so that we may dance
before I take you to my private felucca on the wharf and make
passionate love to you.
PARIS: I'm sorry. If I had some kind of warning that you were coming
JANEWAY: You would have changed it and I would've missed all the fun.
(Gary whispers to Torres.)
GAUNT GARY: I just don't know what the dolls see in the gigolo, do you?
Now me, I got a whole different approach to women. Treat a lady like a
tramp and a tramp like a lady. Never fails.
TORRES: Paris, did you program this guy?
PARIS: Yeah. Why?
TORRES: He's a pig, and so are you.
GAUNT GARY: Almost never.
JANEWAY: Is this pool or billiards?
PARIS: Er, pool.
JANEWAY: Right. Pool's the one with the pockets. Would you mind if I
gave it a try?
GIGOLO: Reculez-vous. Give the handsome young woman some room. Tell me,
does she have, er, money?
JANEWAY: Commander Chakotay, your stick?
CHAKOTAY: It's called a cue, Captain.
JANEWAY: A cue. All right. So what do we do? Do I go first?
(Paris allows Janeway to break. Three balls head into pockets.)
JANEWAY: Solids.
SANDRINE: (to Kim) I saw that coming a mile away, didn't you? Ah,
you've got a lot to learn, jeune homme. But then, ah, I've got a lot to
teach.
JANEWAY: Eight ball in the side pocket.

JANEWAY
[OC]: A-koo-chee-moy-a. We are far from the sacred places of our
grandfathers and from the bones of our people. But perhaps there is one
powerful being who will embrace this good crew and give them the answer
they seek.